The content of the line on the screen where the VoiceOver cursor is focused appears in the cells of the braille display. VoiceOver uses status cells to provide additional information about the line, such as the text attributes.
If your braille display has dedicated status cells, VoiceOver uses those cells to show the additional information, based on the preferences you set in VoiceOver Utility. Otherwise, VoiceOver uses the first one to three cells on the left or right of the display, based on your preferences. VoiceOver reserves another cell, which it leaves blank, as a separator between the status cells and the other cells.
If you choose not to use a status cell, (VoiceOver, Braille, Status Cells, Off), status is not shown, and all of the reading cells are used to show the content of the current line.
How VoiceOver Uses Status Cells on the iPad/iPod/iPhone
Depending on what App you are using, dots 1 and 2 indicate unread and read announcements.
VoiceOver uses dots 7 and 8 indicate you can pan the display left or right. As an entire line of Braille can not be displayed at one time using the current number of Braille cells available on your Braille Display, dots 7 and 8 notify the reader there is still more coming pan right.
Text Styles and Attributes
Text style status cells identify common text attributes such as underlined, bolded, or italicized words. Typically changes in text styles are Notated in Braille using a font indicator such as dots (4,6). (So far I have not been able to utilize the grade 2 font indicator (4,6) successfully using VoiceOver and my Refreshable Braille display).
Press the router key above a status cell to display an expanded braille description of each dot in the cell. To exit the description, press any other router key.
Less commonly used text styles are displayed in the extended text style status cell. For example, dots 1 and 2 indicate text is superscript or subscript respectively, and dot 5 indicates the selected text has a double underline. (link status cell chart) from Apple Lion Manual
Using Status Cells on a Braille Display
The content of the line on the screen where the VoiceOver cursor is focused appears in the cells of the braille display. VoiceOver uses status cells to provide additional information about the line, such as the text attributes.
If your braille display has dedicated status cells, VoiceOver uses those cells to show the additional information, based on the preferences you set in VoiceOver Utility. Otherwise, VoiceOver uses the first one to three cells on the left or right of the display, based on your preferences. VoiceOver reserves another cell, which it leaves blank, as a separator between the status cells and the other cells.
If you choose not to use a status cell, (VoiceOver, Braille, Status Cells, Off), status is not shown, and all of the reading cells are used to show the content of the current line.
How VoiceOver Uses Status Cells on the iPad/iPod/iPhone
Depending on what App you are using, dots 1 and 2 indicate unread and read announcements.
VoiceOver uses dots 7 and 8 indicate you can pan the display left or right. As an entire line of Braille can not be displayed at one time using the current number of Braille cells available on your Braille Display, dots 7 and 8 notify the reader there is still more coming pan right.
Text Styles and Attributes
Text style status cells identify common text attributes such as underlined, bolded, or italicized words. Typically changes in text styles are Notated in Braille using a font indicator such as dots (4,6). (So far I have not been able to utilize the grade 2 font indicator (4,6) successfully using VoiceOver and my Refreshable Braille display).
Press the router key above a status cell to display an expanded braille description of each dot in the cell. To exit the description, press any other router key.
http://www.brailleauthority.org/alternatemethods/alternate-methods-transcribing-emphasis.pdf
Information about text style changes are displayed in the status cell. For example, dots 1 and 2 indicate bold and italic text respectively, and dot 4 indicates the selected text is misspelled.
Less commonly used text styles are displayed in the extended text style status cell. For example, dots 1 and 2 indicate text is superscript or subscript respectively, and dot 5 indicates the selected text has a double underline. (link status cell chart) from Apple Lion Manual